I knew when I redesigned my site, it had to be big. It would be linked by all the galleries, it would be tweeted by everybody, and the work offers would start pouring in shortly after. I figured with my new kick-ass portfolio, a high paying job at Apple or Google couldn’t be far away. So I spent hours and hours on the mockup. I did about 15 versions, each slightly better than the last, getting closer and closer to portfolio perfection.
And then I threw all of that away and used a free wordpress theme instead.
Why would I do that? Shouldn’t someone who calls himself a web designer we at least capable of designing his own website? The truth is that all that self-inflicted pressure was getting too paralyzing. How should I style comments? How big do the thumbnails need to be? Where will I put my social network links? All those questions were piling up while I was putting off updating my current site.
But nobody cares if your site is the best designed on the net if it doesn’t actually exist. And I realized if I’m designing sites for a living, my work should be able to speak for itself.
So here you go, a very plain, very boring portfolio. But at least it’s there.
Hi Sacha, I know what you mean. I designed about the same amount of variation for my portfolio and it took me about two months to complete it. I would not be satisfied. In the end I had to set a deadline to launch it otherwise I would still be working on it
Dans tous les cas bravo pour ton portfolio. Comme tu dis, “it speaks for itself”.
Merci
I’m working on another redesign actually. This time I had a good idea of what I wanted before I even started designing anything, so it was much easier!
Well, good luck with the redesign then. I will have to come check that later
Funny, I did exactly the same thing. I spent ages procrastinating over a design for my portfolio, but in the end I figured I needed to get something live rather than agonising over mockups.
Love your design style, it’s very clean
@Nikki Glad I’m not the only one
Got here while surfing around. I love the clean look here being that I am bit of a minimalist.
I was also like you and Nikki before, procrastinating over a design for my portfolio (which was a school project) and in the end I have to decide or I won’t make the deadline. I think it’s really nice to set a timeframe and follow it religiously.
I am so glad I’m not the only one who agonizes over one’s own portfolio/blog design. I’ve been in varying stages of redesigning my own portfolio site for 3 bloody years and I’m still not happy with it!
I’m tempted, oh so tempted, to say screw it and throw the entire beast into a wordpress template!
Thank you, for letting me know I’m not the only designer who goes through this.
fay-lisa
@fay-lisa, I think agonizing over your portfolio is the mark of a designer! Actually I would say go ahead and use a wordpress template. At least you’ll have something to show, and as ou build your site you’ll notice lots of things that you’re not happy with, and some other things that you like.
This will make it much easier when you do decide to build a custom-made portfolio site.
Thanks!
Actually, the portfolio’s been up for over 7 years. I’m just never happy with it!
And I do want to put my articles online, without the tedious affair of building the site myself. (read: profoundly lazy)
Thank you for your words of encouragement.
(current mess is here: http://www.faylisa.com)
I understand you, me happend the same with perfilgeek.com, I started to work in the first template but the result wasn’t that I expect, and I think that is better to start working in the content and after in the site. This idea let me to begin my blog and give me feedback.
Your site is quite : )
Go on !!!
Greetings From Chihuahua, México
The easy way is frequently the best way but most people tend to like it the other way. You did a great job. your website is clean and has a great visual appeal. At the Studio we did the same with both the official website and my digital art portfolio at Cargo. We picked up great themes as starting points and developed the rest. A good website up and running in a few weeks is better that the best website developed from ground zero with lots of mockups and headaches.
Nice job Sacha!
Thanks for your comment. Another thing I realized since then is that most people see your work through Dribbble, Behance, etc. these days. So the personal site is not as important as it used to be.
High-fives and fist-pumps. I went through something very similar — http://rainypixels.com/writings/journal/its-raining-pixels-again/
I read that! And I agree whole-heartedly.